I Believe Whoopi Goldberg May Just Have A Blind Spot…

Perhaps, in the interest of fairness, I should add that Whoopi said she wasn’t defending Mel, and didn’t agree with what he did. But that’s a small defense when you’re saying a man who has repeatedly and unapologetically used racial slurs as insults isn’t racist, and that he only made anti-Semitic and sexist remarks against the police officers involved in his 2006 DUI because he was drunk. That sounds a lot like defending his behavior to me.

Whoopi, we need to have a heart-to-heart. There comes a time when you have to accept that friends and people you respect can hold extremely fucked up views and do extremely fucked up things. Perhaps you cannot keep them as friends once you admit this to yourself. I know I couldn’t – not once we get into the Mel Gibson level of fucked-up-ness. But the denial has got to stop. Perhaps he hasn’t been overtly racist toward you. And really, that’s great. But my bet would be you’re the exception to the rule, and I imagine a large part of this is because you seem to have no problem with ignoring his racism and abusiveness. This works in a very similar way to rape apologism – which, incidentally, you’ve also engaged in! You make excuses for his behavior, don’t call him out on his racism, and downplay all incidents in which his bigotry rears its head. He has now pegged you as an ally. He now knows that, when it comes down to it, you will not turn against him when he continues being a racist asshole. So, Whoopi, here’s the deal. If your friend consistently spews racist bullshit (especially when he gives every indication that he means it), it’s pretty damn safe to say that he’s racist. Therefore, you need to accept that he’s racist, and decide how you want to approach the friendship from there. I would suggest approaching it in a way that doesn’t perpetuate bigotry and rape culture, but I really can’t make that decision for you. Most of all, you absolutely have to STOP BEING AN APOLOGIST. Perhaps you could say, “Mel seems to hold some very racist views, but I would like to continue the friendship and try to influence his views for the better.” I would find that response perfectly acceptable! “I know Mel, and I know he’s not a racist,” however, is not. It would be really, really nice if one day the “Whoopi on The View” headline was not followed by a summary of you spewing apologist crap.